Plant family monsters
Deals: piercing
Weakness: shadow
Resistance: elemental
Neutral: piercing
They have a chance to spawn in place of any shrub or bush. They kinda resemble Deku Scrubs when they reveal themselves. They are basically plants that have acquired sentience, and lie in wait to ambush unsuspecting knights. The "Bushwhackers" are the most common type, and are a melee plant that will walk up to the player and attach itself to it, like a zombie. When knocked off, they whip the player with their roots and try again.
The "Shrubbers" look like ordinary shrubs and act kind of like shankles, untouchable until they randomly decide to pop up and shoot. They launch fast-traveling barbs when they shoot, and depending on the tier, will launch 1, 3, or 5 barbs in a spread. They don't fire often, but when they do, it's hard to dodge.
I'm considering a new combat mechanic: if the player activates the shield just as a bullet hits, it returns the shot to the sender. This could be used to fight Shrubbers (Zelda, anyone?).
Adding a new family means either making one damage type more useful than the other two, or adding a new damage type and changing all the monster resistances. Just add them to the beast family, it needs more members anyway.
Also, this is a plant too, right?